Stevenage boy breaks Screwball Scramble World Record

Noah Alden smashed the previous record of 20.2 seconds, which had stood since 2021, when he completed the game in a speedy 17.5 seconds at his school, Roebuck Academy, back in March.

His journey to becoming a record breaker began when his dad, Danny, brought him Screwball Scramble as a Christmas present.

"We got it for him as a Christmas present last year and it was one of those things where we thought we needed to get a little game for him," Danny told The Comet. 

"I remembered having lots of fun with it as a child, so I thought it would nice if he could enjoy it as well.

"It started out with him just playing it, but about a month after he got it he said to me 'I wonder if there is a world record for it?'. We Googled it and saw it was 20.2 seconds, and he was doing it in about 30 seconds.

"I left him to practice, and every day he was coming back to me saying he'd beaten his time, then one day he screamed 'Daddy, I've beaten the world record!'.

"I was a bit pessimistic about it but I thought I'd go and have a look. He was using this little fridge magnet we've got that only counts in one second at a time, so I timed it properly and he got about 20 seconds, which is when I realised there was something in this."

After getting in touch with Guinness about a world record attempt, Noah and Danny were told that an official attempt would need to take place in a public space, with two timekeepers and two witnesses.

Noah was gifted Screwball Scramble for Christmas. (Image: Danny Alden)

The date for the attempt was set for March 25 at Roebuck Academy - where Danny also works - and after a few failed attempts to break the 20.2-second time, Noah completed five runs of the game that smashed the record, with his fastest clocking in at just over 17 seconds.

Danny admitted that his son's world record holder status has "blown his mind", and that it still hasn't sunk in for Noah either.

"It's not something I ever expected to happen and I don't think he's quite understood it himself," Danny said.

"He keeps asking if he's going to get a Headteacher's Award, and I keep telling him 'Noah, you've got a world record, this is bigger than a Headteacher's Award'.

"He's always been quite resilient. We did trick shots at home for a while just to try and build that resilience and an attitude to never give up. The fact he's got to that stage and turn it into a world record blows my mind really."

Noah's official world record confirmation only came through earlier this month after a lengthy delay, but Danny admitted he's already got his eyes on breaking another.

"He did say 'I wonder if there's a world record for Screwball Scramble Two?'. It's something else to look into because it's a lengthy process," Danny added.

"We set the record back in March and we had to wait for 16 weeks, and then they asked if we could resend the video of him breaking the record, because we'd sent the full 30 minutes. So we had to edit that down and then wait another 14 weeks. It was a long wait."